Mavlankar Championship gets under way

MORE THAN 40 participants from the country took part in the big bore open sight standard rifle 300 metre event on the inaugural day of the 16th All India G V Mavlankar Shooting Championship at the CR I ranges of Infantry School (Mhow) on Thursday.

MORE THAN 40 participants from the country took part in the big bore open sight standard rifle 300 metre event on the inaugural day of the 16th All India G V Mavlankar Shooting Championship at the CR I ranges of Infantry School (Mhow) on Thursday.

Lt Gen Yadav opened the contest by cutting the ceremonial ribbon at the ranges followed by firing of inaugural shots by Nana Patekar and Hav Tejmal of Army Marksmanship Unit (AMU) on six pitchers kept in place of targets. The audience, along with Lt Gen Yadav, appreciated the accuracy of Patekar in breaking the pitchers by clapping hands.

Speaking on the occasion, Lt Gen Yadav said that shooting is becoming popular in our country after the silver medal won by Lt Col Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore at the 2004 Athens Olympics and that the Indian marksmen will do well in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He declared the two competitions open while concluding his speech.

Later, informing about the event and its history, the commanding officer of AMU Col I J Peoples said that in these competitions, matches are played with .308 inch, 7.62 mm and 6 mm rifles by about hundred men and women.

The teams of Army, Punjab Police, ITBP, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Bihar and civilians are taking part in the events, which is held at Nahan, Indore, Kolhapur, Jalandhar and Mhow. The championship was organised at Mhow in 2000.

The event is important for AMU because the world military games will be organised at Hyderabad in October and the Commonwealth Games in 2010, he added.